Men, would you wear a ballet shoe?

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Choosing your shoe is, for Nicol Edmonds, a decision that needs to be weighed carefully. The English dancer, a first soloist of The Royal Ballet, has remained loyal to one ballet shoe maker – Sansha, the pioneer of the glove-like split-sole slipper – for the past 14 years. “It’s like a musician and their instrument,” he says. “You get used to the shoes that feel best on your feet, that make you feel the most natural while you are dancing. You have this bond with your shoes.”

Edmonds’ choice may sound like an anomaly, but a trend for ballet-inspired shoes has been surfacing across menswear in recent years. Ballet flats have been featured in the collections of Dries Van Noten, Balenciaga, Jil Sander and Marni; this season, the selection includes slip-ons by Bode and square-toed versions by Courrèges. A nappa-leather interpretation by Versace sits somewhere between a dance and a driving shoe; at Simone Rocha, sombre tailoring has been offset by tactile slippers in faux fur. It’s a trend that is set to continue into next spring, as both Gucci and Wales Bonner styled their most recent menswear shows with ballet slippers – made from rubber and cotton mesh at the former, with iridescent buckles at the latter.

There’s an unapologetically elegant, loungy nature to them

When styling her SS22 collection, the designer Molly Goddard decided to fit her male models with red or white ballet flats. “It was my favourite of all the menswear collections we have done,” she says. Harry Styles wore Goddard’s clothes, replete with white ballet flats, on the cover of his third studio album, Harry’s House. It brought to mind the footwear of choice of another style savant performer: Serge Gainsbourg, who took to the stage in dance shoes by Repetto. Other fans include playwright Jeremy O Harris and fashion designer Marc Jacobs, who has stepped out in black Balenciaga flats paired with denim, loose-fitting workwear and black tie.

Balenciaga satin Louis XV mules, £820

Simone Rocha faux-fur Criss Cross ballerinas, £595

Dior satin Tendu Ballerina shoes, £970

Hereu lambskin Puntera pumps, $460

“I think that slippers bring a sense of fragility and magic to a look for a guy that feels a little bit decadent and a little bit modern,” says the stylist Tom Guinness, who worked on Wales Bonner’s SS25 show. “There’s an unapologetically elegant, loungy, pampered and ‘kerb to cab’ nature to them. But then they are totally modern because they have a hint of androgyny, softness and ambiguity about them.”

As a UK size 71/2, I have worn The Row’s signature mesh slippers for several years. Feeling part Baryshnikov, part samurai, I have worn them to the office, to black-tie balls, to fetch groceries – and even on a hike across Hydra. (Other options by The Row, including ones made to fit larger sizes, include its Canal loafers.) Last December, in a box at The Royal Ballet, I wore Miu Miu’s white silk-satin iteration, paired with white silk socks and a black suit. I find slippers incredibly comfortable – they allow for a speedy pace of walking through London. In addition, their soft construction makes them easy to pack into carry-ons. 

At Dior, Kim Jones designed his autumn season’s collection as a tribute to the ballet – in his AW24 show, ballet flats were paired with socks. “The Dior Tendu ballerina is a tribute to Rudolf Nureyev,” says Jones. “It has been reworked into a masculine volume. It was an important reference because Nureyev is entwined with my personal history because of my uncle, the photographer Colin Jones. Colin was a ballet dancer and had a friendship with Nureyev.” 

Marni calfskin flats, £695

Courrèges leather Minimal loafers, £540

Versace leather Villa Driver shoes, £610

Dries Van Noten leather slippers, $555

Classic ballet has also been a “huge form of inspiration” for Hereu, say the Spanish brand’s designers Albert Escribano and José Luis Bartolomé. Their latest offering includes the Puntera – “our take on the ballet shoe, reinterpreted as a genderless glove-like lambskin pump”.

Luke Walker of London menswear business LEJ first used ballet flats as a styling device when working with Matthew Bell, a principal at The Royal Ballet, on a campaign shoot. In the resulting images, Bell’s shoes clashed artfully with LEJ patchwork jeans. “I’ve always been interested in dainty shoes to balance an outfit, so dance shoes make perfect sense,” says Walker. “To me, that is sportswear. I don’t do sneakers, so dance shoes, with their elastics and webbings and slim profiles, are the synthetic element to set off natural silks and denims.”

Edmonds is more pragmatic. As The Caterpillar in Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, he is set to perform wearing simple flesh-coloured slippers this winter. But what about off-stage and away from the barre? “Trainers!”